HDCAM Capture – Timecode Breaks Detected

[Andrew Saliga]

Well, no error upon launching FCP, but still getting TC errors.

Can anyone think of anything else that could cause TC issues? Here is an overview or the system I have going.

HDCAM @ 1080i29.97
Sony HDW-F500 HDCAM Deck
SDI connection via AJA Kona 3
AJA Blackburst feeding to AJA breakout box, HDCAM deck and monitor
Capturing to a SAN via fibre
PreoRes 422HQ as capture codec
FCP 7
MacPro with two 2.66GHz Dual Xeons

Andrew Saliga
I/O Specialist/Assistant Editor
Steelehouse Productions
http://www.steelehouse.com

[Andrew Saliga]

Also, I’m digitizing via batch list.

Andrew Saliga
I/O Specialist/Assistant Editor
Steelehouse Productions
http://www.steelehouse.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

Sorry about the plugin, it was worth a shot.

[Andrew Saliga] “Also, I’m digitizing via batch list.”

I just reread that from your original post. Who made the batch list? The transfer house?

If you manually log and capture clips from that tape, is there breaks from that tape? Is there a non 29.97 tc number on there (like frames #s above 30)?

[Andrew Saliga]

No worries. It’s good to know about at least.

Half the batch lists were exported from Avid bins. I received these on paper and they’re older, so if a digital version exists, it’s likely the ad agency doesn’t know where it is.

The other half were created here, as the tapes were logged into a spreadsheet.

I did try parking the timecode before a problem area, hit play and did a “Capture Now”. Still had issues.

I decided to get more methodical and I can’t get consitant results…

I logged via FCP and entered the exact TC that appears on a problem clip. The first time I got a TC error before the capture was complete, even though FCP is set to warn after capture. Upon my second attempt I was able to capture without any errors.

I tried to capture the problem clip generated from the batch list again and this time it worked.

It seems that they all eventually work, but I have to babysit the process because it warns on a per clip basis, sometimes before even one clips is completely captured, rather than at the end of the batch capture process.

Andrew Saliga
I/O Specialist/Assistant Editor
Steelehouse Productions
http://www.steelehouse.com

[Mike Procunier]

I was having the same problem yesterday. Every clip I tried to capture from HDCam experienced ‘timecode breaks’. I gave the tape to another editor and he had no problems. I’m pretty sure its a disk speed issue. My buddy was capturing to a fibre-connected Rorke, while I was trying to capture to a temporary internal array, since my fibre-array hasn’t arrived yet.
Perhaps your drive is too slow, fragmented, or there’s some kind of bottleneck in your connection to the drive. Maybe run some kind of disk speed test. Its worth a try.